A Decade of Change for In-house Counsel

As the dust settles on #CLOC2017 aka the 2nd Annual CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium) Institute, COO at Yerra Solutions, Jerome Raguin reflects on how much the in-house legal landscape has changed in the past decade, and what’s in store for the future.

At a macro level:

“bar some notable exceptions, the industry is trending toward handling work in-house with increasingly talented legal staff as the default and resorting to outside counsel as the 2nd best alternative.”

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A Brief History of Legal Research Tools

From the early ‘90s to now, US energy law entrepreneur at PowerUp Legal (and MyShingle.com creator), Carolyn Elefant turns back the clock on legal research.

Drawing on her own 20+ years experience, including using the law library when starting her own firm because LEXIS cost $600 per month, she sends a polite reminder that while things have improved, we haven’t seen the promised revolution, yet.

In her words:

“As the saying goes, the wheels of justice grind slowly – and the wheels of legal research innovation even more, stifled by the WEXIS duopoly and lawyers’ fealty to precedent. Yet, finally we’re moving forward…”

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Getting into the Flow

“I don’t like this article – I love it.”

Says one appreciative reader, commenting on this great post setting out six steps to getting in the ‘flow’ state, penned by the good folks at Help Scout. Here’s how to get your flow on:

  1. Debunk myths about work
  2. Connect to a clear purpose
  3. Develop a ‘flow mindset’
  4. Limit external distractions
  5. Drop multitasking and batch tasks
  6. Practice mindfulness

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Data Protection on Your Mind

If your company holds or processes personal data of EU residents, chances are you’re a bit worried about complying with the EU’s incoming General Data Protection Regulation, according to this study.

And things are going to get costly, with Australian businesses expected to spend an average of $1.86m to get themselves GDPR compliant before enforcement begins on 25 May next year.

Not to mention our own notifiable data breaches scheme, gearing up for kick-off on 22 February 2018.

Yeesh.

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9 Questions to Discover What Your Team Members Really Think

When’s the last time you had a one-on-one or performance review with a team member… and you learned something completely new?

Well, after three years researching, writing and refining hundreds of questions across almost 300 companies with 15,000 employees in 15+ countries, CEO of KnowYourCompany, Claire Lew reveals her nine questions to discover what your team members really think.

Here we go:

  1. Are you afraid of anything at work?
  2. Have you seen something recently and thought to yourself ‘I wish we’d done that’?
  3. Is there something we should measure in the company that we currently don’t?
  4. Is there any part of the company you wish you were able to interact with more?
  5. Are there any benefits we don’t offer that you’d like to see us offer?
  6. Is there an area outside your current role where you feel you could be contributing?
  7. Is there anyone at the company you wish you could apprentice under for a few weeks?
  8. Have you seen someone here do great work that’s gone unnoticed? 9.Are there things you don’t know about the company that you feel you should know?

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Hype vs. Reality of Artificial Intelligence in Law

I’m a big fan of anything that cuts through the hype when it come to AI in law.

And Ron Friedmann has done a sterling job of it, summarising the sought-after views of Professors Katie Atkinson and Daniel Katz, who presented at Lexpo ‘17 in Amsterdam this week.

For example, if you’re a fan of expert systems based on rules, here’s some food for thought:

“Dan is bearish on rules-based systems (expert systems). History is not favourable for this approach. Some successes in other fields but not that many. These systems lack common sense. These systems are static but the world changes. Success requires constant updating. Until recently, rules based systems beat data-based systems. Now, however, data beats rules.”

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Decoupling the Role of GC and Company Secretary

For any in-house lawyer wearing the dual hats of General Counsel and Company Secretary, here’s one for you.

In this post, governance experts Paul Marcela and Andrew Vitrano, set out a handful of arguments urging companies to question why the CoSec role is still typically combined with the distinctly different role of General Counsel.

While the issues around privilege are set out from a US perspective (albeit still interesting I think), the other issues raised have global application.

For example:

“Think for a moment about the absurdity of having the company’s lead lawyer, or even his or her deputy, laboring over a binding machine (or the digital equivalent) to assemble, collate and distribute board meeting materials, ordering lunch for the board, assisting a board member with travel arrangements, or ensuring that a board member is paid or reimbursed. Believe it or not, this happens even at well-heeled public companies…”

Ever wondered whether large or small companies tend to combine the role of GC/CoSec? Well here's a chart showing company size data from a sample of 133 Australian in-house lawyers with the combined title.

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